Himachal to harvest snow to meet water scarcity.
Feeling the heat of global warming, the Himachal Pradesh government is contemplating to go for snow harvesting as a solution to deal with water scarcity in high-altitude areas.
Official sources said the State Council for Science, Technology and Environment in HP will shortly start a pilot study to develop technology for snow harvesting with SASE (Centre for Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment), Manali.
The area picked up for the pilot study is Pooh valley of tribal Kinnaur district of HP.
Pooh is located at an altitude of 2,662 metres and has apple orchards.
So much that locals had to engage water tankers for irrigating apple plants last year.
We will start working on it as soon as we get the written sanction,” Kunal Satyarthi, Joint Member Secretary of the state Council for Science Technology and Environment, HP, told The Statesman.
We will build structures to trap snow.
So far, the state, which is increasingly witness to melting glaciers and drying up water sources, has so far focused much on rainwater harvesting.
However, the tribal areas of the state, including Kinnaur and cold desert of Lahaul and Spiti, receive much snow every year that melts without put to any use.